“As we say here each week, our challenges start with ourselves. The last couple of weeks on offense, our execution has been down. You look back at last week and we were 14 percent efficient running the ball and 20 percent efficient throwing the ball. That keeps you in a lot of third and long situations, and then we’re 2-for-15 in those, you don’t sustain drives. For us, it’s not as much about Virginia defensively, it’s about us executing the things we want on offense.”

On the running game against Florida State:

“We didn’t get a lot of movement at the point of attack. I thought we missed a few reads. Our running game is predicated on our quarterback and the zone-read game. Once C.J. [Brown] went down, some things changed in what we were able to get executed. We’ve got to block people better and we’ve got to maintain blocks. When you’re in the zone-read scheme, you’ve got to make sure you read it correctly. When we get the ball to the edge, we’ve got to take care of blocking the perimeter. We’ve got to get all those things accomplished running the football and we haven’t been very good at it.”

On if the scheme changes when certain players are injured:

“Hopefully you don’t adjust on the fly. We prepare for worst case scenarios as always. We know what the strengths and weaknesses are of the offensive players in our scheme. A lot of that stuff is done before the game even starts, so it’s not an on the fly adjustment. There may be a few things you tweak when it happens and we’ve got to do a better job of handling that when it takes place, whether it’s receivers, quarterbacks or running backs. Out mentality is the next man up. The next guy has to step up and do the job.”

On quarterback Caleb Rowe’s performance:

“As I told him after the game, I thought Caleb came in and executed a lot better than what I would have expected. Coming into that type of situation, his first play was a 3rd-and-12 and he bangs the seven route for a first down. Then he comes back and gets into a little rhythm and gets the ball to Stef (Stefon Diggs). Then we get a holding penalty. When you play really good teams like Florida State in that type of environment, you’ve got to take advantage of every opportunity you’re given and I thought Caleb played OK.”

On correcting the offensive mistakes heading into Saturday:

“All those things are correctable, whether it’s through a change of personnel or guys getting better at the techniques and reworking some of the technical things that it takes. We self-scout ourselves every Monday and we look to say, who are we? Your personnel dictates who you are first and foremost and then what you can get accomplished or get executed is the second most important thing so we look at that each week and at the plan we’re putting together and we’ve got to get it cleaned up more today and tomorrow.”

On running back Jacquille Veii:

“Jacquille’s a talented player. We’ve got Brandon [Ross] and Albert [Reid], both those guys are talented players. Jacquille does bring a different element. Like anything, we continue to look and find ways to get our best players the ball and I thought he came in and did some good things at the end. I thought the game dictated some of that. We were trying to get out of the game and Florida State was trying to finish up the game themselves.”

On responding from the loss:

“It’’s our jobs as coaches to get us through it and that’s where I think the system of how we approach each week dictates it because there’s not a lot of time to dwell on what happened Saturday. We addressed it Sunday and one of the things we said on offense is we wouldn’t allow what happened Saturday to a really good Florida State team to have any meaning on what happens this upcoming week against Virginia. We buried it on Sunday and went out and practiced and prepared on Sunday. The way our schedule goes, it doesn’t allow it to linger because once we get out of the team meeting and the film review, we’re out on the practice field showing Virginia looks. We haven’t done much talking about the Florida State game because all our effort and energy is into preparing our guys for a tough Virginia team that’s coming in here.”

On if Saturday’s game will show the character of the team:

“There’s no doubt you’ll see. We had two of our better practices Sunday. Tuesdays are like pulling teeth. They’re coming off a day off and this is the time of year with a lot of midterms and things like that, but the focus was there. We’ll find out a lot about ourselves this Saturday.”

Defensive Coordinator Brian Stewart

On moving on from Florida State to Virginia:

“On Sunday, we look at the tape from last week’s game, the good, the bad, and the ugly and then we practice on Sunday. It’s Virginia. We focus on Virginia and try to prepare for them.”

On the offensive challenges Virginia poses:

“I think they’ve got a strong running game. Both running backs, especially [Kevin] Parks, are running really well. Then, the quarterback’s a good runner. He does a good job of reading. They’ve got a zone-read scheme that they run and he’s not a bad passer. He’s got a good, strong arm. He’s a good athlete.”

On scouting Virginia despite personnel changes:

“The offensive line was different. They’ve been changing and moving around the offensive line. They used some different receivers, but their scheme stayed steady and what we’ve got to do is look at the scheme and what they do in different formations and attack it. That’s what we’ve been doing.”

On defensive lineman Zeke Riser:

“I thought he did a good job. He did what we asked him to do. He’s a solid player. He used his hands, filled his gaps, so I was pretty excited. I was excited for him that he got his first chance to go out there and play for us.”

On the mood at practice this week:

“I thought that on Sunday we ran around well and then I thought yesterday was a good practice for us. I thought the energy was up and the attention to detail was up. I was pretty excited about that.”

On defensive lineman Andre Monroe:

“He’s quick. He’s experienced. He’s played before and he’s a good player for us. If we see something where we can use him to take advantage we’re going to do that. We thought that he’d do a good job for us.”